Evergreen shrubs or trees with large simple coriaceous entire or toothed leaves. Flowers numerous, small, white, in terminal panicles or corymbs. Calyx-lobes persistent. Berry 1- to 5-celled, walls of the cells not bony. About twenty species, inhabiting the mountains of India, a few reaching China, Japan, and California. Name from shining, from the laurel-like foliage. Handsome shrubs, requiring protection in very severe weather.

1. Ph. serrulata, syn. Crataegus glabra. - A handsome shrub with large Laurel-like coriaceous leaves and terminal flat corymbs of small white flowers. A native of China and Japan.

2. Ph. arbutifolia, syn. Crataegus arbutifolia. - As the name implies, the foliage of this closely resembles that of the common Arbutus. The flowers are larger, in an elongated panicle, and the petioles and young branches bright red. This is a native of California.

3. Ph. Japonica, syn. Eriobotrya Japonica. Loquat.-Leaves large, oblong, rugose, downy beneath. Flowers white, appearing in November. Fruit about the size of a small apple, pale orange-red, rarely produced in the open air in England, even against a wall. The fruit is edible, and grown in considerable quantities in the South of France. A native of China and Japan.